Authors notes: EDITS 04/07/2019 Updated grammar and spelling.

I just want to remind the readers that any opinions expressed by the characters in this story do not in any way reflect my own and are entirely in character of said characters -even those affected by the Mask-

-Enjoy

Chapter 9

Me and my ID

Oh! His head! What happened? Where was he? Why does his head hurt so much?

Bart remembered something to do with lions and tigers and bears and elephants and... he reached up and felt his head were a large lump was beginning to rise up. A jolt of pain sparked where he touched it and a rush of pain spread over the top of his head. What happened to him last night?

He replaced his arm back where he raised it from, over something on the other side of his bed. Both his arms were around something, was he hugging his pillow? No, he had his head on his pillow, and whatever he was hugging was far too solid. It felt like a bag full of meat. He opened his eyes and could do nothing but stare for a moment, what he had his arms around was Milhouse! Milhouse's eyes also slowly opened behind his thick glasses and they looked in horror at each other for a few moments, taking in the awkwardness of their situation before they both screamed and pushed away at each other so quickly that they both fell out of opposite sides of Bart's bed and landed on the floor with a thud.

They both continued on their backs, on all fours to move away from each other until they were as far apart as possible, pressing themselves up against opposite walls of Barts room. They stood there for a moment catching their breath. Bart's heart thudded in his chest at the scare he'd just had, and by the look of it Milhouse felt the same way. They just stared at each other for a moment. It wasn't until Bart caught his breath and his heart started to beat more slowly that he had the courage to ask.

"We... we didn't! Did we?" Bart asked slowly in disgust.

"Do what?" Milhouse asked, equally horrified.

"You know..." Bart said pressing his back further into the wall as if he could pass through it and disappear from this odd situation, "Kiss?"

Dudes didn't kiss, he knew that as a number one rule, only girls kissed, dudes didn't... it just wasn't done.

"Can you taste lemon flavored cough syrup?" Milhouse asked, Bart waggled his tongue in his mouth hoping to god that he couldn't taste anything but his own spit.

"No." He replied and Milhouses' face relaxed. Bart took this to mean they didn't kiss during the night, and he too breathed a sigh of relief. How did they end up like that, in the same bed? He strained his brain as much as he could to remember what had happened last night. But his brain didn't seem to like being used and instead of giving him memories decided to give him a headache telling him to 'knock it off!'

"Hey, how did we get home?" Bart asked. They were supposed to be looking for his Mask.

That thought triggered another, then another, then another, then... something funny which wasn't really important, before his trail of thought got back on track, and all the memories of the previous night flooded into his head.

"Lisa!" Bart said quietly in realisation to himself. She'd tried to kill him, she tried to feed him to the lions... tigers... whatever! That was the last memory he had before everything blacked out. But she can't have fed him to the lions or he wouldn't be alive. Or was he? This wasn't hell was it? If it was then it was a lot lamer then he'd expected. He expected flames, and bottomless pits and things like that, this was just his room. Or was this heaven? Why did he wake up nearly kissing Milhouse? If this was heaven then god had just played a prank on them. At last, the creator did something cool.

He was certain what happened last night wasn't a dream though, because he had plenty of scrapes and bruises on him from whatever happened.

"Lisa must've taken us back to your place." Milhouse said at last. This meant they were both alive and god hadn't pulled that cool prank, Lisa did.

Lisa, pulled a prank? That wasn't like her at all to be cool. It was a cool prank by his standards and he almost felt proud, but then he remembered why she'd done it. She had his Mask, she had been wearing his Mask, which meant she stole his Mask! She really did have it all along!

"Lisa's got my Mask" Bart said to Milhouse.

"Lisa found the Mask?" his sidekick said, hope rising in his voice that he'll get a chance to wear it.

"No, Lisa stole it!" Bart said, annoyed, "she must've snuck in here yesterday and stole it while I was asleep." He checked his Krusty clock, it was five am –am meaning morning he remembered from what he had learned the previous day- "Then she wore it herself, because she was jealous I've got such a cool mask"

He turned and marched over to his door and took the door handle in his hands, but stopped himself short of actually opening it. Something popped into his head, what did you call it?... a thought! If he went into Lisa's room now and started rummaging around, Lisa would go to mom, and mom would speak to Homer, and Homer would do nothing, passing the burden of punishment back to mom, who would send him back to bed and punish him.

What could he do? He wanted that Mask back, but he didn't want mom or dad to find out about it either. Knowing Lisa, as soon as he goes into her room she'd go tell mom all about it. Of course, mom probably won't believe her, but all you needed to do was put the Mask on and that was all the proof you needed. It wasn't his forte, but he actually had to sit and think of this very, very carefully. He needed to plan what he was going to do. Then suddenly, he had a brilliant and sneaky idea. All he had to do was wait until Lisa got up and left her room, then he'd tear her place apart to find it.

Lisa was tired. More tired then she had ever felt in her life. Her body felt like a ran down toy. Sluggish and none responsive. Yet, despite this tiredness she couldn't get to sleep at all. Not one wink for the rest of that night. While wearing the Mask she'd felt powerful and energetic, but once she removed it her natural fatigue seemed to catch up with her rapidly, and now the Mask stopped her sleeping, because it had given her the knowledge of what was inside her head. The monster that it released from the depths of her mind.

She wanted to sleep. She willed herself to sleep. Lisa closed her eyes and said to herself. "Sleep, please sleep, just go to sleep." But she just couldn't. Had that Mask given her insomnia as well? She couldn't see her 'other self' anymore when she closed her eyes at least, so that was a good sign.

Lisa opened her eyes. It was much lighter now, and sunlight shone in through her curtains. From outside she could hear the chirping of birds welcoming the sun into the sky... and keeping her awake. She couldn't stand laying in her bed trying to get to sleep any longer, she had to do something else.

She got up out of bed and went up to her mirror and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. When she opened them and looked at her reflection she jumped at what she saw. What was staring back at her was her green headed, red eyed alter ego, grinning a large toothy cartoonish grin at her. She only saw it for a second, but she blinked and rubbed her eyes before looking again, and it was gone; it was just an hallucination. Lisa's face was really normal, normal in every sense of the word except for the dark circles visible under her eyes. Her hair was a mess, her evenly spaced points were all out of alignment. She breathed a sigh of relief. It might not be the prettiest her reflection had been, but at least it was 'her' reflection.

Lisa looked back at her computer, at the corner under which the Mask now resided. Was it still there? She shook her head, of course it was still there, there was no way someone could take it while she was in here. She'd have heard, since she never got a wink of sleep.

She was reminded of the Schrödinger's Cat problem. The idea that if you put a cat in a solid, sound proofed box and sealed it. The only way you could tell for sure that the cat was alive or dead was to open it up and see. Until you did, you couldn't say with any certainty if the cat was in either state. It was a problem in quantum physics, but why was she thinking of it now?

8:00am, it had been 5:00am when she last looked, which meant 3 hours had passed. But it felt like three days. Lisa decided it was time to get up anyway, there was no point trying to get to sleep anymore and she needed something to drink and eat. Maybe that would wake her up at least, or even help her fall asleep.

She opened the door and walked straight past Barts room. She didn't care if he went into her room to look for the Mask, she was too tired to care right now, and she was confident he'd never find it anyway. But thankfully, he didn't open his door as she walked past.

She slowly went down the stairs and went into the kitchen where her mom was already up, rushing around the kitchen preparing breakfast and drinks for the rest of them. Maggie was in her high chair sucking peacefully on her pacifier. Oh, how blissfully ignorant she was of the darkest shadows and creatures which must resided inside her own head, inside everyone's heads. The youngest member of the family was just content to suck on her pacifier while Lisa had to live with this nightmare trapped in her brain. For that split second she would've given almost anything to swap places with her younger sister so she would be in blissful ignorance of her ID. The small part of her the Mask used to create the creature she turned into. A secret identity she didn't even know about that was plucked from her brain. Her brain, probably the one thing she could've called a proper friend, and even it had really dark secrets she didn't like.

Thud! Went the ceiling, followed by a "D'oh!" The unmistakable call of the wild Homer awakening from his slumber by falling out of bed onto the hard floor. Surprisingly, it was a very effective alarm clock, because he always fell out of bed right on time, usually a few minutes past 8:00am. If that carpet in her mom and dad's room were made of shag pile she doubted if Homer would wake up at all.

Lisa's eyes were slowly closing again as her mind tried yet again to dose off unsuccessfully. Probably for the best, she couldn't really analyse anything else going on in the kitchen due to her own fatigue.

"Lisa, are you alright?" Her mom asked her as she sat down at the table

"I'm fine, I just didn't sleep well last night." Lisa yawned as she reached out for her cereal and the milk.

"Lisa, did you sleep in your dress?" Her mom asked, "It's all creased." Her mom was right, she had slept in her clothes. It just never occurred to her to change her clothes, because her mind was full of disturbing thoughts. Lisa didn't answer her moms question as she started to pour her cereal, adding milk and poured herself some orange juice.

She then picked up her juice to take a sip. But her drink caught her attention immediately when her lips felt something floating around in her juice and her tongue tasted an awkward milky taste. Her eyes opened more and she felt a little more alert and awake at her awkward tasting drink. But then she realised a very stupid mistake she'd done. She'd poured her cereal into her glass and her juice into her bowl. She was much too tired to feel stupid about this mistake or to switch the contents around so she just drank her cereal and ate her juice. No wait, that wasn't right... oh, screw it! Her brain was stalling for a moment, like it was running on fumes.

When she was finished, she put her things down and her head slowly lowered onto the table as she tried to sleep again.

"Lisa, maybe you should lay down on the couch for a few hours." Her mom's concerned voice drifted into her consciousness. "The table isn't the best place to sleep."

Lisa agreed, but didn't say anything as she got up and slowly walked into the TV room. She felt like a zombie in her sleep deprived state, any thoughts which tried to jump into her mind couldn't scale the walls that were her own fatigue. Climbing onto the couch and laying her head down on the soft padding she gently drifted to sleep.

She had a few moments of blissful silence. The only noise she could hear was the gentle rattle of... stuff her mom was doing in the kitchen, and the sound of her own regular breathing. A few moments after that the kitchen noises had drifted out of her consciousness and her mind was at peace.

Suddenly, she felt something landed on her and her eyes snapped open. She could've breath as whatever was on top of her back started crushing her. The pressure was released, but only for a second as it returned just as quickly, knocking the wind out of her again. She rotated her head to see what was causing this. It was Bart, sitting down on top of her and bouncing up and down.

"Bart! Get off me!" she screamed at him as she tried to roll over to push him off. He jumped off eventually, and landed on the floor, where he turned to look at her, a cruel smile on his face from what he had just done.

"Lisa, where's my Mask?" he asked.

"What?" Lisa asked, as her tired brain tried to catch up with her.

"What have you done with my Mask? Where is it?" He asked again. "I know you had it, I saw you wearing it last night!" She rubbed her eyes, okay here we go, she was going to use her excuse. She got up off the couch and was going to play dumb and say he must've been dreaming. But that wasn't what came out of her mouth.

"It's there!" She said as she pointed down at Barts shirt. He curiously looked down and amazing even herself Lisa used her pointing index finger to flick Barts nose up so quickly she heard an audible crack. Now Bart knew what it felt like to fall for a childish prank. Her brother, the devil incarnate took a few steps back holding his nose which began to bleed heavily.

"Lisa, I didn't know you had it in you!" He said, almost proudly as he held his bleeding nose. He can't be in that much pain then, she decided. "But that doesn't mean I don't want my mask back!" He added. She suddenly felt wide awake, and her eyes were wide open as she quickly stepped closer to him.

"What's wrong, Bart? Underwear too tight?" Lisa said, and before the spiky haired boy could answer she stepped behind him, reached down the back of his shorts, and pulled his underwear over his head to cover his eyes like he'd done to her two nights ago. "Well, it is now!" Her voice was high pitched and squeaky as she laughed like a lunatic watching Bart try to remove his underwear from his head.

"Lisa, what's gotten into you?" Bart said, after he managed to remove his underwear from his head.

"What do you mean 'gotten into me?'" She said, as she somehow found a baseball bat from somewhere on her person. "It's been in my head this whole time!" She felt her eyes become crossed and each eyeball then began rolling in the opposite directions to each other as she swung the bat behind her back and knew exactly what she was going to do. She didn't want to do it, but her internal struggle was overpowered by the urge to simply do it.

Lisa swung the bat down and to slammed it onto Barts head so sharply she heard his head crack. He fell down, blood oozing from his nose and ears. He was probably dead, she thought.

"And that's game match and set!" She grinned sharply. What has she done? She's killed Bart? Okay, he annoyed her sometimes and she sometimes wished he'd just drop down dead, but she assumed that would just happen from drink driving or a drug over dose in his late teens. Not at her own hands.

Lisa dropped the bat and took a step back, putting her hands over her mouth to stop herself from screaming at Bart's lifeless body. Tears started to well up in her eyes at the implications of what this could mean. She was a murderer, plain and simple!

She was distracted briefly by movement from the side of her vision. Had someone seen her kill her brother? She turned to look at the window above the TV, but there was no one there. The movement was coming from the TV screen itself. But the TV was off, so where did the movement come from? Lisa regard the TV, the blank screen acted like an effective mirror, and what she saw made a chill run up her spine.

In it she saw her own reflection. It was completely normal, except her eyes were glowing a bright shade of crimson, and as she grinned her mouth was filled with a set of large, tile white teeth. She felt an even colder chill run up her back as she saw her reflection do something she was sure her body itself wasn't performing. The 'mirror Lisa' reached up to grab her hair above her forehead and pulled, and her entire face started to peel away and came off like it was a yellow rubber mask. Underneath it revealed the crazy looking green face of her alter ego. It laughed, it was laughing at her! Laughing like a loon! Lisa, the real Lisa screamed and...

Everything vanished when her eyes snapped open and she sat bolt upright still screaming. She stopped when she realised she was on the couch again and Bart's dead body was nowhere to be seen. Quickly, Lisa reached up and felt her face. It was normal, as far as she could tell, but to make absolutely sure she got off the couch and crawled along on all fours to the TV to look at her reflection. She reached up with her right hand and felt her face and her mirror image mimicked the movement in reverse. She gave a deep sigh of relief. It was just a dream, a stupid nightmare.

Or was it? Of course it was! Her brain told her. The ID was supposed to be part of her subconscious, after all. After all that freedom it had, was it any surprise that it would take control the only way it could, through her dreams. This reminded her of that movie, Nightmare on Elm street where the monster Freddie Kruger could leap from dream to dream and harm or kill the dreamer. This didn't mean what she did in her dream affected Bart. Did it?

Oh, stop being so paranoid! Her brain yelled at her, and stop trying to give your ID an identity. It's just a small part of your mind, a collection of brain cells connected by synapses. Think about it rationally and logically, not emotionally. The Mask gives you these powers only when you wear it, you're not wearing it, therefore you cannot cause harm to someone in your dream. It's probably just your ID excited by the Mask, that's all!

Lisa breathed another sigh of relief. At least she knew her logical brain was still on her side at least. It was just a dream, nothing more, nothing more, nothing more.

But no matter how many times she told herself this, she wasn't completely convinced it was true.

Saturday night: a green headed man attacks two policemen and a couple of old ladies. Sunday night: a green headed boy attacks the principle of Springfield elementary school before vandalising the school itself. Now Monday night: a green headed, young girl attacks the workers of a logging company and releases the animals at a nearby zoo.

There was some connection here that police chief Wiggum just wasn't seeing.

All three wore a green rubber mask, and all apparently displayed the same magical abilities. They could all be the same person? When Wiggum met the adult version of this crazed lunatic he was on patrol three nights ago, and he witnessed this person transform his physical appearance many times, so it was reasonable to assume all three of these people were one.

They tried to talk to the manager of the logging site last night to get a record of these bizarre series of events. But Derek was in no state to talk, suffering from 'post traumatic stress disorder' as the doctors put it.

Wiggum arrived early that morning at the site where this girl 'Green Face' caused havoc. But he declared, there was no case due to lack of evidence, because not only was there no evidence of Green Face being there, but there was also no evidence of a logging company having been there either. No heavy machinery, no portable offices or toilets, nothing, zip! Just a mass of upturned earth, which workers claimed covered the remains of their site.

Wiggum had seen Green Face take bullets in the head, seen him... her... 'it' pull solid objects from nowhere, but even Wiggum couldn't believe Green Face had upturned the soil and buried everything under the dirt in one night. Though saying that, he now had reports that heavy machinery was being dug up from the ground. Plus, more than that, Mr. Burns; the financial backing for the company, had filed a complaint that a bulldozer which had somehow fallen out of the sky and crashed into the side of his mansion. The same bulldozer which was reportedly fired into the air by Green Face from a tree.

Wiggum now sat and looked at the board on the wall, which had three pictures of Green Face in 'its' three forms. Lines and notes had been made on the board linking Green Face to certain subjects and victims. He gazed down at his book, 'Investigating Crimes for Dummies' he'd done everything the book told him to. Try to link everything together to get a general pattern. The only thing missing was the 'motive'.

The Police Chief put down 'Investigating Crimes for Dummies' and picked up a dictionary to look up the word motive. 'The goal or object of a person's actions. Example; Her motive was revenge.' Okay, in other words why did they do this? Why couldn't people just say that? Why invent a whole new word so they could condense a few words into one? People who did that were just so lazy in his book

"Hey Lou, get me a cuppa coffee will ya?" He called to his partner. Wiggum had been wracking his brain for ten minutes and he needed a break.

"But Chief, the coffee machine is next to your desk." Said Lou, who was standing by the board mulling the crime over himself.

"But I'm the Chief" Wiggum insisted, "so I'm in charge."

Lou reluctantly went over to the coffee machine and mixed Wiggum a coffee, black with four sugars, just how he liked it.

"Hey chief, I've been thinking about this Green Face case." Lou said as he set the styrofoam cup filled with hot steaming coffee onto the Chiefs desk. "What if it's not the same guy?" Wiggum took a slight sip of his hot coffee and regretted it as the hot coffee burnt his tongue. He jerked back slightly, removed the cup from his mouth and stuck his tongue out. As he spoke he blew on his own tongue to cool it down.

"What are you talking about Lou?" He asked in annoyance of his own actions as he set the warm cup down again.

"Well, how can it be the same guy? The attacks are random and seem to change depending on what form he's in." Lou went up to the board and pointed his hand at the adult Green Face. "This Green Face humiliates us after we tried to kill him then attacks a couple of harmless women in their apartment..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Wiggum interrupted as if he had just realised something incredibly important. "Those were women? I thought they were cross dressing." Lou continued despite Wiggums interruption and went up to the pictures of the kid Green Faces'.

"The younger, male Green Face attacked anyone to do with Springfield Elementary. The principle, the bullies even the school itself. Which means he's a rebel who hates school and education. But the young, female Green Face's actions lean towards someone who is concerned about the environment, which means she must be well educated for her age."

"I'm not following you." Wiggum said, confusion clear on his face

"Unless this guy is a three way schizophrenic, I don't think Green Face is one person, but three different people all with different motives." Lou explained.

"If you're right Lou, do you have any idea how we catch these three lunatics?" Wiggum asked peevishly. Lou had been getting smart with him all week. First it started with him using 'his' radio that only 'he' the chief of police should be able to use. Then he contradicted him several times about whether a man was dead or alive. Then complained when he ate a pie that Lou had declared was evidence, and now was he was trying to take the lead in 'his' investigation. Lou just shrugged however, and Wiggum's face upturned in a triumphant smile.

"Go make a pot of coffee, Lou." Wiggum smirked, as if this was the greatest put down ever.

Lisa was asleep again on the couch, and for the rest of her nap Lisa didn't dream. Which was a relief, she couldn't handle her ID repeatedly trying to take control in her sleep. Sitting up, all night worrying about what was trapped inside her head was bad enough without it coming out to haunt her in her sleep.

When she awoke it was to the sound of lunch being prepared by her Mom. Lisa had slept solidly for three hours and hadn't dreamed about her ID trying to gain control again. In fact, she didn't really dream about anything in particular, but she didn't care about not dreaming about anything. She was just glad she got at least three hours of sleep. She sat up, got up off the sofa and went into the kitchen for something to eat.

If she thought Bart was not going to question her about, or try to find the Mask, she was dead wrong. As she climbed the stairs back to her room and went in she found the place a wreck. All the draws of her dresser were opened, their contents thrown everywhere. Her books had been pulled off the shelf and her backpack had been tipped upside down, sprawling all the books onto the floor in a heap. He'd even gone as far as to rip the heads of her Malibu Stacy dolls. However the heads were only held on by a small plug and can easily be reattached. But, what really got her goat was what he'd done to her saxophone.

It lay on its stand next to her desk, but the rim was covered in a transparent liquid. The inside was covered in a mucus substance and it took her a while to work out what it was. Bart had been hawking back and spitting into it, gradually filling it. It made her stomach turn at the thought of what Bart did. She accidentally knocked her saxophone causing it to fall over. Some of the mucus substance to spilled out onto her carpet. That sickening feeling was rapidly being replaced by a feeling of deep anger. She suddenly felt eight years of anger begin to resurface, and it was pushing at the boundaries of her head. Anger that desperately wanted to be used, and it wanted to be directed at Bart.

She moved towards her computer, and the Mask, her anger at boiling point. She'll make Bart pay for what he's done. But she stopped half way there for one very good reason. The door to her closet was ajar, and through it she could just sort of sense who was in there. She didn't know how, but she had never been more certain about something like this before in her life.

She quickly, and without warning, ran at the closet door and pushed on it to close the ajar door. There followed a crash and a yelp of pain as whatever was in there fell on top of the person hiding inside.

Lisa threw open the door again and several objects fell from the open door, but sitting in the middle of the pile was Bart.

"Bart, Get out!" She felt all that anger return in full force and she struggled to keep it down. But she was managing it, just.

"Not until you give me my Mask back!" Bart insisted as he got up and stepped from the closet. "I know you have it, and I still remember what you did to me last night. You are so dead!" Bart looked at her menacingly as if he was going to attack her.

If he was expecting her to be intimidated, then he was dead wrong. Lisa's anger just went into overdrive as she reached out for his shirt and pulled him closer so she could stare directly into his eyes. The menacing look Bart had was replaced by one of surprise. Lisa clenched her teeth and her eyes radiated the utter hatred she had for her brother. She then spoke slowly and menacingly through gritted teeth.

"Listen very carefully to me, 'Bart Simpson.'" She spoke his name as if it was the name of some despicable disease, and as far as she was concerned, he was. "If you step one foot over the threshold of my door, and touch any of my stuff again..." she reached down and picked up a very thick book entitled 'the complete works of Shakespeare' "...I'll shove this book so far down your gullet you'll be crapping Hamlet for a week!"

The look on Barts face changed from mild surprise to horror as he tried to step back away from her. Lisa let go of his shirt and allowed him to pull away and she continued to fix Bart with that menacing look.

Lisa simply said the words "Get out" flatly.

"Not until you give me my Mask!" Bart insisted. At these words Lisa's blood boiled again and she reached out and grabbed Bart by the shirt again to keep him within arms reach. She held up the book so it was level with his mouth. "Open wide!"

In that instant Bart yelled, pulled away, ducked under her arm and ran out of her room slamming the door behind him in case Lisa tried to follow. Yeah, he'd better run, if she gets her hands on him again she'd... she'd... she'd... What was she doing? What was she even thinking? This wasn't some idle threat she was making, she was actually considering shoving that book down his gullet. What was she thinking? That book came from the library, they'd kill her if anything happened to it.

She shook her head. Was she dreaming again? She must be.

Lisa dropped the book on the floor and pinched her left arm and a spike of pain registered in her brain, which meant she wasn't asleep this time so what on earth happened? What was going on? She wasn't wearing the Mask, was she? Lisa went over to her mirror and checked her appearance, it was exactly the same as it had always been. So why did she suddenly behave like that? As if her ID had briefly taken control and was trying to break free once again. But how could it do that? It wasn't supposed to have any form of sentience at all.

She turned to look back at the spot where the Mask lay in hiding. Could it still be affecting her somehow? Did her ID have so much control that simply removing the Mask doesn't make it completely go away? Was this a permanent change? Or was it just temporary? She preferred the latter. She didn't want to think that there was a monster actually inside her, waiting to come out whenever she got angry. She may only be eight, but she could still cause harm to someone if she loses it again.

Lisa took a chair and jammed it under the doorknob of her door again and she turned back to view the demolition site that was her room. She didn't feel like cleaning this mess up and the more she looked at it, the more her blood boiled. But she need to control herself. She closed her eyes and sighed. It was then she realised her eye lids were actually still very heavy.

Dropping forwards onto her bed she decided to rest a little more. Maybe she was still just a little sleep deprived. Maybe that was it, she was just cranky, she thought. But part of her mind wasn't fooled by this excuse at all. If the Mask had done this to her then Loki had a really sick sense of humour.

Lisa suddenly realised something. Loki was a 'Norse' Night God. If that mask really was the Mask of Loki then didn't that mean that Loki was real, and so where the Norse pantheon of Gods? That also meant the Norse religion was the correct one, making all other religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism all just false religions. She believed in god sure, but she also believed there was more than one way to reach him... or her... she usually saw most religions as gateways to god, but those who lead those religions were just people using them to milk their followers for money or get them to do something. It was for this reason why she converted from Christianity to Buddhism.

Whoever heard of a Buddhist extremist? If you annoy them they have no choice but to wish you good karma... Did she actually think that line or was that her ID trying to speak again?

The point she was she trying to make was if the Mask was made by Loki, then did it make the Norse God Pantheon, and possibly all the gods under it real as well? Lisa didn't know whether to believe that or not, she had been born a skeptic and it was in her blood to question if things were right or wrong. Another explanation is that this mask was made by some sorcerer or witch and they had dubbed it the 'Mask of Loki' because of its similarities to Loki. Dr. Neuman did say there were no records of the Mask of Loki existing in Norse legend, so who was to say it wasn't just named so because of those similarities?

The Mask had to make her accept one thing though. The world wasn't as neat and ordered as she liked to think. Lisa was always sceptical of anything which could be approximated to magic, always believing there was some scientific explanation behind it all, and yet here was a mask which seemed to blow that mode of thinking out of the water. Was it really magic? Arthur C. Clark had said that 'any alien technology advanced enough would be indistinguishable from magic.' But Lisa wasn't prepared to believe the Mask was made by a bunch of little green aliens.

Some would consider this form of thinking narrow minded, but she just couldn't accept magic was real. Even though there was clear evidence just under her floorboards. Her lips curled up into a smile, on the other hand, if magic was real she could probably turn Bart into a frog. She would probably do it as well, all she had to do was put the Mask back on when the sun went down and she could get payback on Bart for what he did to her room.

No! What... What was she thinking? Putting the Mask on again was the last thing she wanted to do. Why would she even consider it? The Mask must've done something to her to make her think these things, and she was sure that little part of her which the Mask brought out was desperate to be free again. It was bubbling up to the surface, which made her worried, because what if it got to the point where she couldn't help herself?

Lisa closed her eyes tight and tried to blot all this from her mind. She would make sure she never put the Mask on again, she'd make sure no one ever wore the mask again, because when she had her chance she would go down to the garage, get some of her Dads tools and destroy the Mask completely.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: For those who are wondering, Bart and Homer's ID's won't bubble up to the surface because their ID's are extensions of themselves so they accept them. Lisa is the only one so far who is fighting against her own ID, refusing to accept the creature she turns into.

Again I'd like to add that the opinions expressed by the characters do not reflect my own.